Many churches and religions today hesitate to say what the Bible says because they are afraid that they will upset people if they say what the Bible really says.
Have you heard it said that in order to be saved you must say a sinners prayer or come forward and confess Christ publically or that you must give your heart to God or make a decision to follow Jesus or that your sins are washed away through baptism? Have you heard it said that you must be a member of a church or be baptized in order for grace to be available to you?
All these ‘requirements’ can be very confusing.
The word Gospel means good news. It is the good news of how you can have a loving, personal relationship with God that gives meaning and purpose to this life and at the same time gives you that absolute certainty that you will spend eternity with Him in heaven.
Many churches today claim that they are preaching the Gospel, yet they all seem to have different messages.
So the question is what does the Bible say?
First it says that we are sinners by nature and we are enemies of God and separated from Him.
Romans 3:23
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
Isaiah 59:2
"But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear."
Isaiah 64:6 "For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away."
Then in 1 Cor. 15:1-4 we are told what the Gospel is
"Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, [2] by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. [3] For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, [4] and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,"
So what’s the problem? God is justified in His anger towards sin and since we are sinners his anger is also towards us.
Ephesians 5:6 says "Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."
Romans 1:18 also says that "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness," Another verse that is not pleasant to hear but true none the less is 2 Thes. 1:8-9 "dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. [9] And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,"
We have a definite problem so we need to know how is this problem fixed?
Our sin is placed upon another and that other person takes our sin from us, past, present and future. Isaiah 53:6 "All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him."
1 Peter 2:24 "and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed."
2 Cor. 5:21 "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him".
That other person (Jesus) then takes our sin and pays for it for us so we don’t have to by dying and receiving God’s wrath upon himself.
Isaiah 53:5 "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed."
How many of your sins were future when Jesus died on the cross?
This death that Jesus died as a result of taking your sin upon Himself and receiving the wrath of God was good enough. It satisfied the requirements of God about how sin should be payed for.
God was satisfied with this payment for sin.
Isaiah 53:10 "But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering,"
John 19:30 "When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit."
How could this one payment be so valuable that it could pay for all sin for all time forever?
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 10:30 "I and the Father are one."
An infinite, eternal, completely righteous and sinless sacrifice was made for your sin!
So how do you get saved? If He did it all then how can it be transferred to me?
Jesus did everything that was needed to pay for sin and make it available to you.
But before it is transferred to you there must be a belief on your part that this it true and good enough. Before we can experience the benefits that God has provided through Jesus’ death on the cross, God requires that we believe (trust) in Jesus, and what He has already accomplished through His death burial and resurrection as the one and only payment that is adequate.
Galatians 2:16 "nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."
John 3:16-18 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. [17] "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. [18] "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
This believing (trust) is the "hand" that reaches out and accepts this eternal life that is offered freely in Jesus Christ.
1 Cor. 1:21 "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."
Why is this offered to us?
It is a free gift and it is because of God’s grace and love.
Grace is something which is given freely with no cost or requirement on your part. A free gift is only a gift if it is given without cost or obligation.
Romans 4:4 "Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due."
When someone tries to get eternal life and the forgiveness of their sin by doing something like obeying the ten commandments, living a good life, being sorry or any other religious work this gift is no longer a gift. It then becomes an insult to the one offering the gift.
Grace must be free.
Romans 11:6 ‘But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace."
We must accept salvation as a free gift or not at all. Many say that you must first repent. So what does repentance have to do with this? Don’t you have to repent?
The answer is yes but repentance according to the Bible is not what sinful man thinks it is.
Repentance is not being sorry for you sins or deciding you are going to turn from your sin and change your life. Repentance has absolutely nothing to do with regretting your sins or making a commitment to turn from them. God was and is willing to save you just the way you are.
Repentance is when you stop trusting in what you need to do to take care of your sin problem through religion or religious services or obedience to God’s laws.
It simply means you change the way you think about how to be ok with God, and you come to God only on the basis of grace alone, through faith alone, in the finished work of Christ alone.
Faith in Jesus will not save you if, while believing that Jesus died for your sins, you also think that you must be baptized, go to church, or obey the Ten Commandments to "help" get you to heaven. You cannot add Jesus to a list of other things that you must do or be to get to heaven.
You must completely reject all of those other things as having no saving value whatsoever and trust in Jesus Christ alone.
Faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin. You could say that faith is the hand that accepts salvation through Jesus Christ and repentance is the hand that rejects anything and everything else that might attempt to help make grace happen to you.
Have you simply received God’s solution to your sin problem? Or are you trusting Christ along with something else? If so your are not a truly born again Christian you are just a religious person trying the best you know how .
